Risky-Choice Behavior: A Life-Span Analysis

1988 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-33 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen G. Holliday
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Choice Behavior ◽  
Risky Choice ◽  
Choice Situation ◽  
General Strategy ◽  
Safe Alternative ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Age Cohorts ◽  
Risky Option

The purpose of the present study was to systematically test the hypothesis that older people adopt risk-avoiding strategies when faced with risky-choice situations. Ninety-six adults, representing four age cohorts, filled out a risk-taking questionnaire consisting of twelve situations demanding a choice between a safe and a risky option. One-half of the choices involved potential losses, the other half involved potential gains. The results indicated that older adults choose no more safe alternatives than do younger adults. Additionally, for all age cohorts, risk avoiding was more evident when choices were between risky and certain gains than when choices were between risky and certain losses. This pattern of responding suggests that older adults do not necessarily adopt a general strategy of avoiding risky options when a safe alternative is available. Instead, risk avoiding, for all age cohorts, appears to be influenced by the parameters of the choice situation.

Aspirations or survival: decision modeling and the effect of focus of attention in risky choice

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Guy Moshe Ross
Keyword(s):  
Risk Taking ◽  
Reference Point ◽  
Effect Study ◽  
Focus Of Attention ◽  
Risky Choice ◽  
Reference Points ◽  
Aspiration Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Randomized Controlled Studies ◽  
Risky Option

Purpose This research aims to test focus of attention effects in risky choice. Design/methodology/approach As opposed to traditional aspiration-level theory, the shifting-focus concept introduces a second reference point, the survival point, and assumes a shifting focus of attention between the two reference points. In this conceptualization, risk-taking is a function of focus of attention on the survival reference point or the aspiration-level and resources relative to the two reference points. Four randomized controlled studies tested this concept. Findings Study 1 showed that with aspiration focus the probability of choosing a risky option was higher below an aspiration-level than above it. With survival focus, the effect was reversed. Study 2 found that close to the survival reference point, the probability of choosing a risky option was higher with aspiration focus relative to survival focus. Study 3 revealed that with scarce resources the risk taken was higher with aspiration focus than with survival focus, and the scarcer the resources the stronger was the effect. Study 4 demonstrated that with aspiration focus the risk taken was higher below an aspiration-level than above it. With survival focus the effect was reversed. Originality/value In addition to providing support for the validity of the shifting focus concept, this paper elaborates on the theoretical model by providing evidence for moderation effects. Risk-taking was affected by a focus of attention on one of two reference points, and the effect was moderated by resources relative to the two focal points. An advanced model is proposed to capture the effects of focus of attention and resources on risk-taking behavior.

scholarly journals Travelers’ Bi-Attribute Decision Making on the Risky Mode Choice with Flow-Dependent Salience Theory

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 3901
Author(s):  
Xiangfeng Ji ◽  
Xiaoyu Ao
Keyword(s):  
Choice Behavior ◽  
Mode Choice ◽  
User Equilibrium ◽  
Risky Choice ◽  
Objective Probability ◽  
Equilibrium Solutions ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Risky Option

The purpose of this paper is to provide new insights into travelers’ bi-attribute (travel time and travel cost) risky mode choice behavior with one risky option (i.e., the highway) and one non-risky option (i.e., the transit) from the long-term planning perspective. In the classical Wardropian User Equilibrium principle, travelers make their choice decisions only based on the mean travel times, which might be an unrealistic behavioral assumption. In this paper, an alternative approach is proposed to partially remedy this unrealistic behavioral assumption with flow-dependent salience theory, based on which we study travelers’ context-dependent bi-attribute mode choice behavior, focusing on the effect of travelers’ salience characteristic. Travelers’ attention is drawn to the bi-attribute salient travel utility, and then the objective probability of each state for the risky world is distorted in favor of this bi-attribute salient travel utility. A long-term bi-attribute salient user equilibrium will be achieved when no traveler can improve their bi-attribute salient travel utility by unilaterally changing the choice decisions. Conditions for the existence and uniqueness of the bi-attribute salient user equilibrium are presented, and based on the equilibrium results, we analyze travelers’ risk attitudes in this bi-attribute risky choice problem. Finally, numerical examples are conducted to examine the sensitivity of equilibrium solutions to the input parameters, which are cost difference and salience bias.

scholarly journals Aging and Decision Making: Socio-Emotional and Contextual Factors

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 557-557
Author(s):  
JoNell Strough ◽  
Corinna Loeckenhoff ◽  
Susan Charles
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Contextual Factors ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Later Life ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Behavioral Risk ◽  
Younger Adults

Abstract Maintaining sound decision-making skills in later life is a key concern in the face of population aging. The four presentations in this symposium highlight the importance of considering socio-emotional and contextual factors when investigating adult age differences in decision making. Together, they show that features of decision contexts such as the way information is presented, along with social relationships and emotional responses, have distinct implications for understanding age effects in decision-related processing and outcomes. Drawing from fuzzy trace theory, Nolte, Löckenhoff and Reyna showed that gist-based (“good,” “extremely poor”) versus verbatim information (exact numbers) was differentially appealing to younger and older adults, with older adults seeking more gist information than verbatim information. Young and Mikels investigated older and younger adults’ integral emotional responses to a behavioral risk-taking task. Younger adults experienced more anger and less contentment than older adults. These emotions differentially predicted risk taking in the two groups. Seaman, Christensen, Senn, Cooper, and Cassidy found age differences in learning about the trustworthiness of social partners. Older adults showed less learning relative to younger adults and invested less with trustworthy partners and more with untrustworthy partners. Smith, Strough, Parker and Bruine de Bruin found that older age, perceiving better decision-making ability than age peers, and perceiving declines in ability over time, were associated with lesser preferences for making decisions with others. In her discussion, Charles will integrate these findings with existing research on aging and decision making and offers directions for future research.

scholarly journals Betrayal Aversion: Evidence from Brazil, China, Oman, Switzerland, Turkey, and the United States: Comment

2010 ◽  
Vol 100 (1) ◽  
pp. 628-633 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary E Bolton ◽  
Axel Ockenfels
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
The United States ◽  
Risky Choice ◽  
The Other ◽  
Binary Choice ◽  
Risk Averse ◽  
Personal Risk ◽  
Risky Option ◽  
Betrayal Aversion

In a series of binary choice problems, we investigate how a chooser's risk taking changes when others share in their personal risk, either equally or unequally. We find that when the safe option yields inequality, the risky option is taken significantly more often. On the other hand, the inequality resulting from the risky choice does not affect risk taking. We also find that choosers tend to be less risk-averse in a one-person context compared to when the risk also affects the payoff of another. (C72, D81, Z13)

scholarly journals Age Differences in Discrete Emotional States During Risk Taking

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 557-557
Author(s):  
Nathaniel Young ◽  
Joseph Mikels
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Risk Taking ◽  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Emotional Experience ◽  
Emotional Responses ◽  
Emotional States ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Balloon Analogue Risk Task ◽  
Increased Risk

Abstract Emotions often guide risk-taking. For example, anger tends to lead to increased risk-taking. However, older and younger adults differ in their emotional experiences: older adults tend to report more positive emotions, fewer experiences of anger, and relatively similar or increased experiences of sadness relative to younger adults. As such, differences in emotional experience may manifest in the integral emotional responses of older and younger adults as they take risks. The current work examined the discrete integral emotional responses of older and younger adults as they completed the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART). For the BART, participants completed 40 trials. Prior to each trial, participants reported how much anger, sadness, contentment, and excitement they felt. The results indicate that younger adults experienced more anger and less contentment than older adults in response to the BART. Importantly though, age differences also emerged in how discrete emotions predicted subsequent risk-taking.

scholarly journals Age, Loss Minimization, and the Role of Probability for Decision-Making

Gerontology ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (5) ◽  
pp. 475-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan Best ◽  
Alexandra M. Freund
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Goal Orientation ◽  
Age Differences ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Opposite Pattern ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Gain Loss ◽  
Meta Analyses ◽  
Loss Framing ◽  
Risky Option

Background: Older adults are stereotypically considered to be risk averse compared to younger age groups, although meta-analyses on age and the influence of gain/loss framing on risky choices have not found empirical evidence for age differences in risk-taking. Objective: The current study extends the investigation of age differences in risk preference by including analyses on the effect of the probability of a risky option on choices in gain versus loss situations. Methods: Participants (n = 130 adults aged 19–80 years) chose between a certain option and a risky option of varying probability in gain- and loss-framed gambles with actual monetary outcomes. Results: Only younger adults displayed an overall framing effect. Younger and older adults responded differently to probability fluctuations depending on the framing condition. Older adults were more likely to choose the risky option as the likelihood of avoiding a larger loss increased and as the likelihood of a larger gain decreased. Younger adults responded with the opposite pattern: they were more likely to choose the risky option as the likelihood of a larger gain increased and as the likelihood of avoiding a (slightly) larger loss decreased. Conclusion: Results suggest that older adults are more willing to select a risky option when it increases the likelihood that larger losses be avoided, whereas younger adults are more willing to select a risky option when it allows for slightly larger gains. This finding supports expectations based on theoretical accounts of goal orientation shifting away from securing gains in younger adulthood towards maintenance and avoiding losses in older adulthood. Findings are also discussed in respect to the affective enhancement perspective and socioemotional selectivity theory.

scholarly journals Decisions from experience: adaptive information search and choice in younger and older adults

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Spaniol ◽  
Pete Wegier
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Information Search ◽  
Cognitive Aging ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Association Learning ◽  
Desirable Outcome ◽  
Dopamine Hypothesis ◽  
Risky Option

In real-world decision making, choice outcomes, and their probabilities are often not known a priori but must be learned from experience. The dopamine hypothesis of cognitive aging predicts that component processes of experience-based decision making (information search and stimulus–reward association learning) decline with age. Many existing studies in this domain have used complex neuropsychological tasks that are not optimal for testing predictions about specific cognitive processes. Here we used an experimental sampling paradigm with real monetary payoffs that provided separate measures of information search and choice for gains and losses. Compared with younger adults, older adults sought less information about uncertain risky options. However, like younger adults, older participants also showed evidence of adaptive decision making. When the desirable outcome of the risky option was rare (p = 0.10 or 0.20), both age groups engaged in more information search and made fewer risky choices, compared with when the desirable outcome of the risky option was frequent (p = 0.80 or 0.90). Furthermore, loss options elicited more sampling and greater modulation of risk taking, compared with gain options. Overall, these findings support predictions of the dopamine hypothesis of cognitive aging, but they also highlight the need for additional research into the interaction of age and valence (gain vs. loss) on experience-based choice.

scholarly journals Impaired dissociation of advantageous and disadvantageous risky choices in adolescents: the role of experience-based learning

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marieke Jepma ◽  
Jessica V. Schaaf ◽  
Ingmar Visser ◽  
Hilde M. Huizenga
Keyword(s):  
Risk Taking ◽  
Choice Behavior ◽  
Risky Choice ◽  
Developmental Changes ◽  
Late Adolescents ◽  
Risky Choices ◽  
Experience Based Learning ◽  
Risk Taking Behaviors ◽  
Choice Policy

Abstract Adolescence is characterized by a surge in maladaptive risk-taking behaviors, but whether and how this relates to developmental changes in experience-based learning is largely unknown. In this preregistered study, we addressed this issue using a novel task that allowed us to separate the learning-driven optimization of risky choice behavior over time from overall risk-taking tendencies. Adolescents (12-17 years old) learned to dissociate advantageous from disadvantageous risky choices less well than adults (20-35 years old), and this impairment was stronger in early than mid-late adolescents. Computational modeling revealed that adolescents’ suboptimal performance was largely due to an inefficiency in core learning and choice processes. Specifically, adolescents used a simpler, suboptimal, expectation-updating process and a more stochastic choice policy. In addition, the modeling results suggested that adolescents, but not adults, overvalued the highest rewards. Finally, an exploratory latent-mixture model analysis indicated that a substantial proportion of the participants in each age group did not engage in experience-based learning but used a gambler’s fallacy strategy, stressing the importance of analyzing individual differences. Our results help understand why adolescents tend to make more, and more persistent, maladaptive risky decisions than adults when the values of these decisions have to be learned from experience.

scholarly journals Decisions from experience: adaptive information search and choice in younger and older adults

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Spaniol ◽  
Pete Wegier
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Decision Making ◽  
Information Search ◽  
Cognitive Aging ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Association Learning ◽  
Desirable Outcome ◽  
Dopamine Hypothesis ◽  
Risky Option

In real-world decision making, choice outcomes, and their probabilities are often not known a priori but must be learned from experience. The dopamine hypothesis of cognitive aging predicts that component processes of experience-based decision making (information search and stimulus–reward association learning) decline with age. Many existing studies in this domain have used complex neuropsychological tasks that are not optimal for testing predictions about specific cognitive processes. Here we used an experimental sampling paradigm with real monetary payoffs that provided separate measures of information search and choice for gains and losses. Compared with younger adults, older adults sought less information about uncertain risky options. However, like younger adults, older participants also showed evidence of adaptive decision making. When the desirable outcome of the risky option was rare (p = 0.10 or 0.20), both age groups engaged in more information search and made fewer risky choices, compared with when the desirable outcome of the risky option was frequent (p = 0.80 or 0.90). Furthermore, loss options elicited more sampling and greater modulation of risk taking, compared with gain options. Overall, these findings support predictions of the dopamine hypothesis of cognitive aging, but they also highlight the need for additional research into the interaction of age and valence (gain vs. loss) on experience-based choice.

scholarly journals Understanding the Link Between Social Skills and Phone Use

2021 ◽  
Vol 10 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kennedy Ralph ◽  
Aurora Ramos Nuñez
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Emotional Intelligence ◽  
Social Skills ◽  
Social Competence ◽  
Short Form ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Middle Aged ◽  
Younger Adults ◽  
Age Cohorts ◽  
Mindfulness Skills

Smartphones took the world by storm in the 2000s. Over the years, smartphones have become vital in everyday life. Each generation responds to technology differently. The younger generation is much more involved with smartphones as well as technology as a whole. Thus, spending too much time on a smartphone could be related to individual’s well-being. The purpose of the present study is to measure Emotional Intelligence (EI), mindfulness, and social competence among different age cohorts and see if there are differences in phone use. Our hypothesis is that participants who score higher on EI, Social Skills, and Mindfulness will score lower on the Problematic Phone Usage Scale. Younger adults will score lower on EI, Social Skills, and Mindfulness and higher on Problematic Phone Usage than middle aged and older adults. We ran correlational analyses among, mindfulness, social competence, and problematic phone usage and an ex-post facto comparison between the four cohorts with ages ranging 18-30 (n=105), 31-40 years old (n= 30), 41-50 (n= 30), and 51 and older (n= 21). Survey questions included the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire- Short Form (TEIQ-SF), Kentucky Inventory of Mindfulness Skills, Social Competence, and Problematic Phone Usage Scale. Data showed that as age increased phone use decreased. EI, mindfulness, and social competence scores for younger adults were much lower than for middle aged and older adults while younger adults had a significantly larger problematic phone use than middle aged.

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